New Year, new puppy, no sleep...

So a lot has happened since I blogged about the pre-Christmas season. We added 3 more Christmases to our previous 2 for a total of 5 Christmases!! We rang in the New Year in STYLE. And, the event that has taken most of our attention, WE GOT A NEW PUPPY!!!

I was totally horrible with the camera this year. I think after the wedding, I was good not being in pictures for a while. We both sat back and enjoyed being with our families this year, which explains the lack of pictures from the Trousdale Christmas, Christmas with Bill and Lisa, and Christmas with Donnie and Betty!! Really the only ones we have are Christmas morning at our house opening gifts, not too exciting.

We rang in the New Year in style at a black tie invitation only event in downtown Chattanooga! We came by invitation of THE BAND (that makes us cool). My friend from back in the day at MHBS, Justin Crisler, plays with his brother in a tribute band, “Alabama Blues Brothers”. It was a great show, and some of us may have had a few too many.

It turns out (Matt fessed up) that Matt thought I was getting him a puppy for Christmas. We’ve talked about getting a puppy after we put a fence up with our 2008 tax returns for over a year. He thought I had bent the rules and gotten a puppy before the fence to surprise him at Christmas. Now he loves his Christmas gift (so he says), and I must say it was pretty awesome (though a little private so I won’t discuss it). But no matter how great a gift is, if you are expecting and want a puppy, if it’s not a puppy… IT’S NOT A PUPPY!!!

So after we got back from visiting Matt’s dad after Christmas, all he could talk about was how much he had thought about his puppy before Christmas and how excited he was to get a fence this spring so that we could get a puppy. We wanted a beagle, pure breed, male puppy, and oh by the way not from a breeder. Great, this will be easy. He talked me into “touring” the new animal shelter, McKamey Animal Center. They told us that they had just adopted a beagle puppy out a few days before. Nice. He stopped at the awful pet store in the mall where there was a beagle puppy, not an option. Then when we went to PetsMart for kitty litter and food, he came to the register with a book on beagles!

Dear Lord, it was pitiful. So he came home and got on petfinder.com just to look (realizing that pure breeds are very hard to find at shelters, especially puppies, we knew we may have to search a long while to find one). Well, he found this puppy he thought was so cute, so I called the lady in Perry County TN (half way b/n Jackson and Nashville). It turns out a hunting dog (wearing the trademark orange collar), probably bred on purpose, showed up at someone's house and had 4 puppies!! All pure breed beagles, mom and puppies were turned in. The mom is still available for adoption. Anyway, I told Matt that the lady was willing to meet us the next day (Jan 2nd) at the Saturn Parkway exit on I-65, and if we crunched budget numbers and could do it then we would go get him.

The puppy is a boy (Matt wanted another boy in the house since me, the cat and Hurley are all girls!). He is 10 weeks old and weighs 5.5 pounds (smaller than Hurley was at that age). His name is Einstein. It remains to be seen whether he will live up to his name!! Right now, he is a handful wanting to chew on everything!! It’s constant!! Pants legs, shoe laces, wicker file box, afghan, rocking chair, rugs, you name it – he tries to chew it!

Hurley was NOT AT ALL happy about the new addition (as you can see by the look on her face above). We took her with us to get him (we had to pick between 2, and of course Matt picked the rambunctious shoe chewer over the more cuddly one!). We wanted Hurley to feel part of the process instead of us showing up with a new baby. When she realized that the puppy got in the car with us, GAME OVER. She was PISSED. She bit him when he tried to get in the back seat with her. She growls at him when he gets near her. And she tattles on him when he chases the cat. It’s freakin’ hilarious!

Einie just loves Hurley; he follows her everywhere. He even puts her leash in his mouth when we are walking like he is helping!! Today at lunch we had a breakthrough. Hurley played with him willingly for the first time! She was play growling with her mouth open (but not biting down) and he was rolling on the floor. SO CUTE. Here’s the video.

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on with us. Up every three hours during the night to let Einstein go outside. We’re sleepy but happy. Pray for us as Matt starts classes for grad school back tonight!!